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Monday, July 8, 2013

Write in Your Books

Long ago I got over the idea that I shouldn't write in my books. I'll admit that I only apply this to nonfiction. My fiction remains strictly unmarked.

However, my nonfiction often winds up with a checkmark or star next to significant passages. I don't underline or highlight since that interferes with rereading, as I found to my sorrow soon after I began the practice.

7 comments:

It's not quite the same as physically writing in a book, but I use the four highlighting colors in Kindle. (I wish they had two or three more.) A really good paragraph can have a rainbow of colors highlighting different levels of importance.

By your recommendation, I'm slowly working my way through "Fire of Mercy, Vol. 1" by Erasmo Leiva. Only 20% of the way through and have over 300 highlights from mixing all the colors. (And thank you for recommending that book.)

I have been thorough scribbling away in my books even since I was able to read books that I predominantly own, as opposed to library books (I find it really irritating to start reading a library book and come across a previous reader's random notes...usually in some awful neon gel-pen. It is like they are violating my own private dialog with the text). So, about the beginning of college when I had to by my own books for class. When I couldn't write on books, I used to use Post-It notes, which serve the purpose, but are actually pretty bad for books if you keep them there long (adhesive residue and all).

I find it interesting that you write more on nonfiction than fiction-I tend to do the opposite. I'll bracket an important paragraph or underline a notable sentence in my nonfiction, but that's about it (but I'll write extensively about what I read elsewhere). When it comes to fiction, there are notes galore. This is especially true for poetry. You can always tell the poems from anthologies that I've spent quality time with, since they are hugged with their own layer of scribbles. Because I studied literature and philosophy in college and frequently refer back to books that I used in class, I love recovering my old notes, which are often really helpful, and also capture a unique mental snapshot of my past-student-self. One of my favorite memories of 'writing on the text' was when one of my college professors printed Keats' Odes on giant sheets of butcher paper for each student in the class, so we could see all the poems side by side and connect (literally) themes across the poems.

Oh poetry. First I'd have to read it. Ever. (Yes, how different we are!)

For fiction, that's what my quote journal is for. To be fair, I also put nonfiction quotes in there. If I want to mark up fiction (while I'm reading it or for a book club or podcast), I use Book Darts.

My husband's late grandfather used to mark up his fiction -- Agatha Christie, in particular. He'd circle the typos, make notes about inconsistencies, and catch clues as the came to light. It was a pleasure to read those annotated editions -- felt like you were in the room with him, chatting about the story.

I'm with Joanna. I've been writing in books since as long as I can remember. And I too do more scribbling in fiction and poetry than non-fiction. Usually non-fiction is direct writing, so the writer tells you what you need to know. Perhaps I might underline something but it doesn't usually require my thoughts. But creative writing, both fiction and poetry, is typically indirect writing, writing by suggestion, analogy, and context, and that brings me to thoughts which I feel I should jot down. I enjoy looking back years later on something I wrote in the margin of a book and either recalling my thought or realizing how wrong I was then. ;)

Some Like It Hot

Sugar:

Real diamonds! They must be worth their weight in gold!

Horoscope

You will slowly come to appreciate the value of silence when everyone seems to want to say things you do not wish to hear.

Note this is satire via The Onion (warning: site can contain explicit content). Satire means: trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

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